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Interview with the CEO of QuiBids.com

We recently interviewed CEO Matt Beckham of US based penny auction QuiBids.com. Mr. Beckham tells us that QuiBids.com is the largest US penny auction in terms of auctions per day (about 200). Over the last three days, since January 21st, 2010, there have been 485 ended auctions. Possibly more ended auctions than any other penny auction site?

With all the penny auction websites out there these days, how do you feel you’re any different than any of your other competitors?

QuiBids.com: That’s a great question. When we decided to enter the penny auction space, there were about half the number of competitors as there are today; and that was 6 months ago! With all of our competition running this model in a similar manner, we realized the best way we could differentiate ourselves from our competitors was by providing our users with auctions that are easy to win. Moreover, we strive to provide our users with excellent customer service , and to get our products to our winners as quickly as possible.

In the next 6 months, however, you’ll see some substantial differences in the way we run the penny auction model versus our competitors. So stay tuned…

What got you interested in the entertainment shopping industry?

QuiBids.com: We felt it was a fun business model. Penny auctions are fascinating in many aspects. There is a lot of economics, marketing, finance and many other facets of business, involved in making a penny website successful. We thought this would be a wonderful challenge in a fun niche market.

How long have you been open?

QuiBids.com: We launched QuiBids in late October of 2009. Since then, we’ve experienced substantial growth and are looking forward to the year ahead. We’re pretty pumped about all the things we have planned for 2010. Some of these plans include ways to change the landscape of penny auctions in regards to not only how they’re run, but also how to create the best user experience for our customers.

What kind of items do you offer/ have lined up? Do your auctions run on a schedule?

QuiBids.com: We are currently auctioning off HDTVs, MacBooks, smart phones, gaming consoles, digital cameras, a variety of gift cards to many popular stores, various kitchen appliances, and much more.

Yes, we do schedule our auctions to give our users a chance to see what’s coming up. This way they know when to come back and bid.

Penny Auctions can sometimes get a bad reputation, due to the fact that some employ bot bidding scripts and shill bid. What do you have to say about those who say “QuiBids is a scam” or “Penny Auctions are scams?”

QuiBids.com: I feel that anytime a consumer potentially spends money and gets nothing in return, (other than the experience of competing for prizes), you are going to have those who say it’s a scam. Given the model of penny auctions, there are many companies that run these sites only to make money. These companies do not put an emphasis on building long lasting, valuable relationships with their customers. At QuiBids, we didn’t want to just be another penny auction site that cycles through new customers in order to make the model work. In order to make this happen, we’ve dedicated ourselves to giving out the most wins of any penny auction website, as well as making it easy to win. Because we do this, and do it quite effectively, anybody that uses our site for a few hours and watches auctions will clearly see we aren’t a scam.

What are the timer increments between bids/does this vary by auction?

QuiBids.com: We want to allow time for everyone to have the option to think about whether he/she wants to bid on an item. We use 20 second/15 second/10 second progressions; this is essentially the internet auction equivalent of ‘going, going, gone’. All auctions start off and as they gain more attention and bids, the timer increment goes down to 15 and then finally 10 seconds.

If a user does not win an auction, we do offer the ‘Buy it Now’ option, which is where the user can purchase the item at retail minus the cost of bids placed.

How much are your bids?

We also offer free bids for a person’s birthday (5), for referring friends (25 bids), and for other promotional offers!

QuiBids.com: We currently run over 200 auctions a day. In terms of the number of auctions and winners we have daily, this makes us the largest US penny auction website. We take great pride in not only having the most auctions, but also giving our users the best chance of winning.

What are your shipping costs? How long does it usually take for users to receive their items?

QuiBids.com: Our shipping costs vary from item to item. Users should expect to receive their items anywhere from 5-10 business days… In other words, pretty quick!

What states/countries are you open to?

QuiBids.com:We are currently only open to the United States; however, we are considering whether we want to offer QuiBids internationally. At the moment we feel we are able to give the best user experience and customer service by staying within the United States.

What is your policy for bid refunds?

QuiBids.com: We are happy to refund any unused bids, though we do not offer refunds on bids that were placed during auctions, unless there was a glitch in the system on our end. This is a very rare occurrence, but in the event that this does happen, we’re happy to assist in the situation.

Are there win limits, limits /household?

QuiBids.com: Yes, there are limits. While some exceptions may apply, only one account is allowed per person, per household. Our support team would be happy to answer any questions regarding this policy.

We limit a total of eight wins every 28 days and only three wins per day per account. Additionally, only one win of the same product is allowed, on items with a value price of over $285, over that same 28 day time span. Similarly, only one win is allowed per 28 days on items with a value price $1,000 or greater. These limits are in place so that we can give everyone the best chance possible to win an auction.

Is there a story behind the name/theme?

QuiBids.com: QuiBids is pronounced (Kwi-Bids), as in Quick Bids. We’re just chopping off the “c” and the “k.” This has led, unfortunately, to people pronouncing QuiBids in all types of different ways such as Kwee-Bids, Q-Bids, etc.

Is there anything else you would like to tell Penny Auction Watch readers?

Quibids.com: Our mission is to redefine shopping by providing the best deals possible for our customers with a unique, fun and exciting online experience. We give out the most wins (for US residents) out of any penny auction website and we do this because we want users to continue to use QuiBids for their shopping needs. Also, we pride ourselves in being the beacon of moral and ethical business practices in our industry. We define success through the creation of long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with our customers.

No, they don't mention their profits. But you can easily figure them out.

Quibids.com has $.01 and $.02 increment auctions. Take a Nikon D90 for example. I saw one going on there earlier today for about $290.00, and the auction wasn't over. So, many bidders are paying $.60 per bid. So at a $.01 increment that's 29,000 bids, or their profit is 29,000 x $.60 = $17,400!!

This is for 1 item. They of course have the lower cost items that not many people would bid online for. I will not be using Quibids.com and I recommend that others don't either unless you want to throw your money away.

I saw this site and watched the video “news report” on Quibids, and was intrigued. I signed up and bought a beginner pack for $45.00, I read some stuff in the 101 section and was steering towards the lower priced auctions like the gift cards and bid voucher auctions. I bid on a few when the seconds ticked down, but was outbid. I realized that when I bid, I add time to the auction so waiting for the seconds to tic down to 1 is pointless as it keeps going. I also watched and saw that some of the same items were not being bid on and ending with really low winning bids. I think this is rather unusual. You encourage us to bid on the “beginner type auctions” (giftcards, bid vouchers etc…) but it dawned on me the amount of money that you are making on very small ticket items. For example a $25.00 Applebees card sold for $2.14, which on the surface seems like a good deal for the buyer…$2.14 plus shipping, gets him the card for less than $5.00. WOW! But 214x.60= $128.40! That is obscene.

Dear Scott, you sir have no pancake mix. You are also very, very, very, very horrible at math. there is a difference between 2.14, and 214. And besides that, one person is a nutcase if they bid on one product 214 times. Only really, really cool kids can tell the difference between “I can’t believe it’s not butter” and real butter… I am one of those cool kids.

At a final bid price of $2.14, with each bid costing $0.01, means that a total of 214 bids were made. If each bid costs me $0.60 then, indeed, it would have cost me $128. Now, realize that one person is crazy to spend that much on an auction, however, if 107 people spend $0.02 each, the profit to quibids is still the same: $128 for a card that cost them $25 to purchase.

Many bids are done with voucher bids, which are worth less that a nickel to anybody with a real amount of them. I started on Quibids 3 days ago, spent 60$ 2 get 100 bids. I have almost broken even(Stupid win limits), and have 104 bids left.

You can think of it as illegal casino, yeah. You win what other people lose AND the Casino itself gets way more than what you win They also disable accounts that win sometimes just like how Paypal does their business.

The gambling/casino model would be fine if they were upfront about it and were licensed to run it. I don't think they even realize that's what they've created here, which makes me question their business smarts overall.

They'll probably end up either having to shut down or gut their business model and rebuild from scratch.

what puzzling me was that there was two $50 gift card of your choosing. one sold for more than $8 and the other one only a dollar something. Why so big a gag between the sold prices. By the way these two auctions end within an hour of each other. What i was trying to figure was where the hell did all those bidders go who lost on the more expensive auction? Also, there's not enough transparency on all these so called "bidders" on the site. Who know if they actually exist or not. All they give u is a user name of the bidder??? these could easily be generated randomly.

Last night (after days of researching) I decided to jump in and give it a try.

I bought the 45/bids package and started at “the beginners auction”…won 25 bids, with my first bid…(ok I’m happy) so, I started watching a couple big ticket items (macbook pro and iPad)…I started watching 2-4 hours it took, for it to get up to over 100 bucks…next thing I know, someone won the $1800.00 mackbook pro for just over $100.00 plus bids…ended up costing user roughly $500.00 after shipping etc. I was like wow…saw tons of these examples.

So, I decided to bid on the iPad (recently sold for 100, 200ish) so I thought surely it wouldn’t go for much more than the Macbook Pro, which, at retail, is 3x the price of iPad…so at around $120, I jumped in.

There were waves of people bidding furiously within the 8 HOURS or so of bidding, some came and went, 3-4 guys where there for most of the time (they were bidding like crazy…they had to be over a thousand dollars and they were not letting up…

I, on the other hand, bid really good for a long time, only bidding when it got down to 1 sec. and was only into it for around $100 by 2a.m. then I noticed my bids seemed to be going faster than what I was actually using…i’d bid, look at my “bids remaining”, and then look again, to see like 5 missing…(even though I didn’t bid)…double checked with my girlfriend…because I couldn’t look away from the counter long, and couldn’t see any pattern or way to prove it…she saw it happen a couple times…

ok, so, whatever, nothing I could do but keep going…It took seven hours to get to get the price to about $200 and now I was in for $200 worth of bids as well…I was now starting to believe I was going to end up paying more than retail, which really is $535ish (after tax) from Apple…and just knowing I wasn’t going to stop until it was mine.

At around 4:30 a.m. things were slowing down. It was me and like 2 other guys (that had a lot invested…I swear the one guy, THURSTY1 had to be in for 2k, buy the way he was bidding for 9 hours…like: I’d bid once for every ten of his…

I went to buy more credits and my card was declined, (not quibids fault), my bank (come to find out today) put a hold on my card for fraud suspect…even though I was nowhere near my spending limit or # of transactions allowed. So, guess what happened next…

NOT EVEN TEN MINUTES LATER… (Time it took for me to get my girlfriends card, for more bids) someone with only 30 bids came in and won the item….the THURSTY1 guy only bid once or twice more in that time and let the “new guy” win. WHY, when he was bidding strong up to that point would he just give up?

I’m not saying for sure that Quibids is a scam or that it’s their fault my bank declined me (which luckily, after a heated phone call to my bank, I am getting my $290.20 back) but things ere VERY FISHY…VERY FISHY, from the way bids were going down, to my bids going faster than I was using them, to a near 10 hour auction suddenly ends, right when I run out of credits, even though there were still 8-10 bidders fighting (2-3 hardcore…and the rest “newcomers”).

I may not have clearly recounted the whole story correctly, but I am positive there is SOMETHING going on…not a sore loser (and I am getting my money back) but there is DEFINITELY SOMETHING SHADY GOING ON OVER THERE IN OKLAHOMA.

They tell you to start small, most likely to butter you up for the big score…then they have some sort of bots or friends doing the bidding from there (I AM POSITIVE, but can’t PROVE IT).

Yeah i know what you mean bob i have been sitting here for nearly 6 hrs now not betting my bids and watching the exact same scenario. I however have won a few gift cards so when i cash out here soon ( i will just go ahead and bid them all on random stuff) i should only be out about 26$ on a 76 total investment including shipping and handling on my items.
However like you i am positive there is something going on in the way of bots trading. I have been watching these guys bid for 5 hrs about 1 bid every 2 or 3 seconds easily 1 or 2k bids each 2 of these guys have been here the whole time and then 2 more “high rollers” show up every now and then and then leave again. the funny thing is that these guys have been members of the site for less than 2 days one of them joined sometime after midnight and is already 1 or 2k bids in? I smell bots i just can’t prove it and i am getting out asap. I was just curious as to how long this bidding was going to go on.

The fake news blog promoting "quibids" and mentioned by a previous commenter above is very revealing. Too bad so many people fall for those things.

By the way, if you feel you have been deceived by "quibids" and spent money with them, contact your credit card company and request a chargeback. The most EFFECTIVE phrase to use with your credit card company is "Item not as described."

I certainly understand the frustrations of all. I felt the same way until about noon today. My mother mentioned this website to me and I thought I would give it a try. I bought the cheap package at 27. The first item I bid on, a gift card, I did not win. My bids went really quick. Then I realized you could bid on bid vouchers. I decided I would bid on the 250 bids voucher, and if I did not win I would just use the buy it now option less what I spent in bids. I shelled out another $27 so I could bid on the voucher. Of course I used all my bids and did not win, so I shelled out another $100 to pay for the 250 bid voucher that was worth $150. I went to another auction determined to win anything. I ended up winning a $25 gift card for $1.50 plus another $2 shipping. At this time I am down by $157.50 and all I have is a $25 gift card. I am no too happy, however I do have 207 bids remaining. Come to find out, the voucher bids are not good towards the purchase price, they are considered free bids so now I have to win something, no buy it now option is available for discounted bid amount. Today I decided to try again. I started bidding on an ipad. After 107 bids I wisely decided I was not going to win it, so I looked for something not so popular and finally won something. I won an Apple TV. Purchase price was 7.01 and shipping was 11.99. I spent 43 of my bids trying to win it. It is what it is, an online casino. At least you don't wreak of cigarettes after loosing all your money.

Swipebids is clearly an almost identical design to Quibids – so why have Quibids not sued Swipebids (aka Just Think Media/Jesse Willms)? As well as all the other sites ripping off their design? And I am still waitng to hear from Quibids CEO Matt as to why Quibids is allowing their site to be advertised using deceptive and unethical advertising? (Fake news sites/flogs/blogs)

I’ve been watching the auctions for a week now. What I saw was that sometimes the auction would freeze momentarily. During the time, 2 Mac Books were up for auction. The lower end Mac Book was sold for around $53 right after the screen freeze. Cliches like this could cause you all the money you’d bid in. Always, there was another Mac Book on Auction up to $235 when I left, but I was unable to find the final auction prize the next day. My next question is: how do you know that you are not bidding against a computer program that could randomly generate names? Is there any government agencies that oversee this to make sure it is legitimate?

i have just been investigating quipids for the past couple of hours and i have a lot of clues leading to me thinking its a scam and how easily it could be a scam, i hope people become aware of how dangerous it could be bidding on this site , there arent enough details clearly listed the fbi,irs, whatever should investigate by searching the company´´s facilty or the way the website works. there is no confirmation that the person you are bidding against is a human and not a company employee or computer.

Its not a scam. They clearly state what the website is and what it is not. You are spending money on a chance to win a prize. if you don't like not winning go to Walmart. If you want to take a chance go to quibids. Its that simple stop complaining.

The whole point of the site is that if you are serious about buying an item you can bid on it for a chance to gain the item at a low cost. And even if you do lose you can still use those bids towards the purchase of that item. So whats the problem!? Think before you do!

-Problem: you pay to bid, meaning that you pay to bid against other people with 0% guaranteed that you will win. Meaning your chances of recouping your bids are 0%.

This is worse than gambling at casino or spending money on food. Because if you spend money on food, you at least enjoy it. At casino there are chances that are random. Here, you are paying to play, with no guarantee of winning. 0% guarantee.

First of all, you people need to understand this is a business. Just like WWE, Just like Boxing, Just like alot of other things out there. They want to make more money.

I laugh at all the imbeciles who call this a scam because they voted for the big prize and lost it. Here's a tip. If you want to use this site correctly you have to use your intelligence. Bidding on an item such as a TV or an ipad is a stupid thing to do, because you have less than 1% chance of winning it. Here's what you can do. Bid on gift cards. Target gift cards. There alot easier to win and you can save them up to buy the thing you really want in the actual store.

Here's my experience with the website.

Lets see﻿ here. I'm including total price shipping aswell.

I got a Iron(Worth 20$) for $6.09.

I got a 25$ Bass Sports Gift card for﻿ $2.03.

I got a 25$ subway gift card for $4.09.

I got a iHip Dual Alarm Clock Radio(Worth $69.95) for $9.34.

I got a pair of V-Moda Bass Freq Earbuds(Worth $29.95) for $5.54

So far I bought a total of 2 bid packages, 45 each for $27.00. 2×27=$54.00 and the total price of the items above with the shipping is $27.09 So basically..27.09+54.00=81.09

Total value of all the items if you're buying a store or amazon – Nearly 180$. Not only that I have 33 bids left.

You gotta be smart when you actually participate in the auction. Also, those guys who win big items are the guys who end up buying only vouchers, saving up 800-2k in just vouchers and put it all on that one big item they want.

The site is just like any other business. They want to make money, and you're stupid if you're one of those people who bid 3 hours before the auction ends or spend those 30 bids you have on a TV praying to god he's gonna help you. Guess what? God isn't gonna help you. You have to be smart to win, that's the name of the game. If you're a dummy you're gonna lose, so when you do don't just come whining and complaining that the site is a scam.

We think It’s a scam because of what they are really charging you to bid. I don’t PAY to bid against people where I go. I PAY for what I want & if I get the last bid. Quibid makes about .1 -.2 cents off every .60 cent bid. do the math. & maybe you should take a look at their fake advertisments & ‘NEWS’ things. They are low lifes trying to make a dollar the scandalous way. & Ortiz, People here are telling their experiences & how THEY THINK ‘ Think ‘ Being the main word here, That it is scam. One guy said several times, I CAN’T PROVE IT, BUT I BELIEVE IT TO BE. So before you open your dick beater & make yourself look like an idiot calling people dumb who you’ve never met, or ANYTHING, go back & read your post. Ha you are just as ignorant & ‘dumb’, whatever you were calling people, for trying to take peoples opinions & use them against them. They are opinions Ortiz, everyone has them. You don’t like them, Well maybe they don’t like yours!! But I will be the one to say it, it’s ridiculous, How old are we? Old enough to gamble I hope. ACT LIKE IT ! You keep using the Scandalous website. You won’t be laughing when you see your money being throw away : ) How’s that for a ‘dumb’ opinion.

i literally just watched 2 bots battle one another for a video game for hours. the game cost $60. the bot names were "adielin" and "rebka" and each bid over 300 times… thats means they used at least $180 in bids!!! thats triple wat the game costs. there was no hesitation between bids either, it was just on after the other. it was clearly not two people bidding. quibids was a huge waste of time and money. i did notice that they dont seem to have bots bidding on the cheap stuff like HDMI cables. they even recommend beginners to start with such stuff… seems like a lure to me.

WOW. I am very impressed with the level of investigative journalism presented here. I mean, are you sleeping with the guy or are you just heavily invested in this company's success? This "interview" sounds like my mother interviewing me for the "best son" award. This site is a joke.

This is taken from the interview. Re-read it. When asded about bot bidding he DOES NOT say they "we don't use them" in fact, he does not address them. If this were me, I would have said "NO we do not use bot or any other types of scams, you bid against real other customers." But he doesn't, just some spin to make you for get the question.

To the interviewer, Why would you not have pushed him for a straight answer?

Penny Auctions can sometimes get a bad reputation, due to the fact that some employ bot bidding scripts and shill bid. What do you have to say about those who say “QuiBids is a scam” or “Penny Auctions are scams?”

QuiBids.com: I feel that anytime a consumer potentially spends money and gets nothing in return, (other than the experience of competing for prizes), you are going to have those who say it’s a scam. Given the model of penny auctions, there are many companies that run these sites only to make money. These companies do not put an emphasis on building long lasting, valuable relationships with their customers. At QuiBids, we didn’t want to just be another penny auction site that cycles through new customers in order to make the model work. In order to make this happen, we’ve dedicated ourselves to giving out the most wins of any penny auction website, as well as making it easy to win. Because we do this, and do it quite effectively, anybody that uses our site for a few hours and watches auctions will clearly see we aren’t a scam.

Any way that you slice it, Quibids is partially a gambling web site. If you get pleasure or entertainment from gambling, and can do it in moderation, then you’ll probably enjoy this. If you want a guarantee of not losing money, then Quibids is not the way to buy products. If you’re looking to sign up for a new account, then here’s a way to start off with some extra free bids: 1) Please use my referral code: http://WWW.QUIBIDS.COM/?REFER=2077482 2) Choose Register Now, and you’ll be able to sign up for free, 3) Purchase the bid package of your choice (I recommend buying the smallest package since you'll be able to win more in Step 5), 4) Enter the Coupon Code WINBIG. You’ll get 10 completely free bids instantly ($6.00 value), 5) Beginner Auctions have the potential to save you an additional $14.40 by winning a 25 Bid Pack with 1 bid. You’ll only be able to participate in one Beginner Auction, so choose wisely. This shopping/gambling web site is not for everyone. If you found this information helpful, then thanks for using my link.

Its not a scam. It should not have been called a bid. Its using Poker strategy. If you know how to play poker, you would know what this is. I guess the name is confusing. People think that bidding is about who bids the highest amount. In poker, it doesn’t work that way. Please play poker a few times with your friends to know how this works.

As far as I'm concerned, every single positive review from QuiBids is suspect. None of them have addressed any of the other shady stuff from the site (fake interviews, fake consumer report sites, clone sites, etc.), much less the concept of the site itself. I'm not surprised if most of these positive reviews are from employees of the company.

@John May 15, 2010 at 12:19 pm — Yeah, I know I am real late to the party on this one. I have had 6 people contact me via my web site about QuiBids. I have been doing a bit of research into them as well as their CEO Matt Beckham. I just want to point out in direct response to John's comments that QuiBids and Matt Beckham as CEO, along with what appears to be an affiliate manager in New York (I am still looking into that) are being sued by the Canadian company that appears to own SwipeBids for copyright infringement, in particular, the wholesale and unauthorized use of fake news sites.

@Amanda August 25, 2010 at 12:08 pm – What!?! You’re wrong sir I have no affiliation with QuiBids.

Amanda, and I say this with the best of intent and with no judgment at all, but you did let the interview come off as a love fest for QuiBids. Another poster commented on the 'bot' non-answer by Beckham. Questions like that have to be pursued hard and a complete answer given, otherwise the entire Penny Auction niche is going to suffer the consequences of a few rotten apples.

Also curious…some of you have posted "how many bids" another user placed. Am I missing something???? I do not see that information on the site? You cannot tell how many bids the winning user placed unless you do not leave the auction in addition to being an excellent counter/tracker. How are you determining this?

I have been on this site now for about 2 months. I have had zero abnormal charges to my credit card and zero trouble “winning” items on their site. I have “won” approximately $500 worth of small items and have only spent $45 on bids.

If you take your time and watch auctions and see how certain items auction off it is easy to figure out when to jump in. Most people are getting angry over this website because they believe, for some reason, they can win an $1,300 item with only two bids @ $3.50. American ignorance at its best I guess.

QuiBids is not a scam although I can understand why people may think so.

I will admit, it is a little like gambling, especially if you do it with the mindset that you are only there to get a great deal. However, this is actually better (or should I say, safer) than gambling in a way because of one key then QuiBids offers.. Buy It Now.

When you lose at gambling, thats it. Your money is gone. That Casino has it and you go home empty handed. But if you lose an auction, you have the option to use Buy It Now and buy the item at retail value. This part is KEY to how QuiBids functions and what keeps it from NOT being a scam.

I went into it originally with the mindset, like everyone else, of trying to score amazing deals but found that I used all my bids and still lost more than I won.

I had the option to use Buy It Now on those losses but didnt want to spend the actual retail cost because I either couldn’t afford it or just didnt feel like spending that much at that time. So in essence, i was taking a chance (gambling) with the fact that I might score a good deal but because I had no intention going in of paying the full price, well, that simply set me up for failure.

I mean seriously, if everyone could score an Ipad for as little as $25.00, then QuiBids certainly would not stay in business. So I realized that I really needed to do what Quibids urges people to do (read their guidelines on bidding and the keys to success). Go into it prepared to spend what the item is worth and then just have fun trying to get a better deal. If you do… BONUS!! If you don’t no big deal. You were expecting that possibility.

Ive read alot of comments like some of those above that say that people bid bid more then what the item is worth and that is simply not true.

The QuiBids system prevents people from bidding beyond the value of the item you’re bidding on and a popup message comes up asking if you want to use Buy It Now. If you accept, the value of all your bids is applied to the price (this is true whether your bid total the actual value of the item or simply run out of bids and lose due to that, in which case you pay the difference).

Take an X-Box 360 for example. It retails for $300.00 and I don’t have one. I could go to the store and buy one for $300.00 or give QuiBids a try, just to see if, by chance, I can get a good deal. But I’m also prepared for the fact that I could lose. But with the Buy It Now option, I know that I can still walk away with what I was after.. granted at full price but hey… if I went to Best Buy, I wouldnt even have had the chance to get it for less.

So I start bidding on it when the bidding gets to $10.00. I bid and bid and bid (each bid costing .60 cents) until I finally win using 200 bids in the process.

At .60 cents a pop thats $120.00 I spent in bids. The price I win it at is $25.00 so I actually spent $145.00 for a $300.00 X-Box..

Great deal, right?

Now lets say 200 bids just wasnt enough to win and I kept on bidding until I used up 500 bids. 500 bids = $300.00. At this point, QuiBids flashes a popup box that tells me my total amount for bids has matched the value of the item and asks me if I want to use the Buy It Now option. So I say Yes and pay shipping and handling but basically have just bought the X-Box 360 from QuiBids rather than from Best Buy.

If you dont want to feel scammed when using QuiBids, then you really need to avoid the mindset of trying to get something for nothing. Thats unrealistic.

You should go into it fully prepared to pay full price and just look at QuiBids as a fun way to buy it versus just handing over a credit card to a cashier.

I still use QuiBids but I only go there when I know there is something I was already intending to to buy or if I see something that I want and have the money to buy it outright. Its an alternative to buying it directly from a store as it allows for the POSSIBLITY of getting the item for less, but Im also aware its not a guarantee.

If you keep this mindset, you will find QuiBids has definite value and adds fun to run of the mill shopping process.

And no… Im not a rep for QuiBids.. Just someone who has learned from my mistakes and realized how to actually use QuiBids without feeling burned.

I fully agree with you Ed, I do the same thing with my bids. I only buy bids, because the voucher bids aren’t worth much unless you have thousands of them to actually win. I made a cheat sheet for how many “real” bids I need to get to the point that I can Buy It Now. Sometimes, if there aren’t too many bidders out there, I can win it for less bids than I anticipated paying for it.

This is the definition of a “bait and switch” scheme. They lure you to sign up by showing you auctions for big-ticket items like Mac computers, big-screen TV’s, and cameras. After you sign up and start bidding and buying more bids, for a while you still have those big-ticket items available to you.

Then suddenly, usually once you have already spent some money on bidding for more bids (another of their schemes whereby you use the bids you paid for to bid for more bids, ostensibly at a lower price), the big-ticket auctions disappear. You still have plenty of junk you can bid on, just none of those items that brought you to the site.

Initially, like me, you may believe it is just coincidence, that the items will be available in the future again and that they just ran out. I though that, until I followed the come-on ads again to the site and discovered to my dismay that there were lots of big-ticket auctions happening- they just weren’t available to me. They already had my money!

I saw this site and watched the video “news report” on Quibids, and was intrigued. I signed up and bought a beginner pack for $45.00, I read some stuff in the 101 section and was steering towards the lower priced auctions like the gift cards and bid voucher auctions. I bid on a few when the seconds ticked down, but was outbid. I realized that when I bid, I add time to the auction so waiting for the seconds to tic down to 1 is pointless as it keeps going. I also watched and saw that some of the same items were not being bid on and ending with really low winning bids. I think this is rather unusual. You encourage us to bid on the “beginner type auctions” (giftcards, bid vouchers etc…) but it dawned on me the amount of money that you are making on very small ticket items. For example a $25.00 Applebees card sold for $2.14, which on the surface seems like a good deal for the buyer…$2.14 plus shipping, gets him the card for less than $5.00. WOW! But 214x.60= $128.40! That is obscene. I asked for a refund. I will see what happens.

True, but don’t forget that if the Applebees $25.00 card sells for $2.14, they take a loss of $22.86. So, you have to subtract this amount by the $128.40, then you get their net profit, which is $105.74.
Also, on every auction that closes below the cost, (remember you have to take away the difference between the sale price and the ie: value), they take losses. So they make a killing on some items, like when an ipad sells for $300.00, but they also take a big hit when a Best Buy $250.00 gift card sells for $5.00. ($5.00 = 500 bids = $250.00) but now you subtract their loss, which in this scenerio is $245.00. So their profit is $5.00. I hope eveyone can get this point. No one mentioned it.

In no way did I lost what so many of you have lost on this “penny auction” site, I know for a fact that if this is a true auction site, then there should be some monetary items for the money you pay. If you goto an auction, you may pay a percentage of the items you won and an entry fee, but so many here have lost hundreds and thousands of dollars for the joy of bidding. Now, I’ve personally spent close to $100 for bids, but only won $50 in gift cards. The actual value of gift cards is much less than what people really think they are, so in all actuality, I lost more than what I spent. Nothing wrong with what I bid on or how I bidded (like a true auction where you place bids on items you’d show interest in), but that’s where they get you. If you bid $2.00 in bids on one item, then move to another, you’ll only get credit for what you bid on that item. Later that day, I also found out that they DON’T give you credit for your bid purchases as they claim to.

Interesting enough, I also noticed that my number of remaining bids dropped dramatically for no reason, so there is something going on here.

Tried QuiBid today for the first time. Husband thought it looked interesting….I did not find it interesting, only highly addictive. I am a lifelong auction participant and on eBay for 14 + years, but i can put it down and walk away. I rarely loose any money, and certainly not just by bidding. With QuiBid, you buy your bids just like chips and the dice just roll and role. The idea of going, going, gone, is an illusion – when you buy your chips, you have already lost your money! If you happen to win an item, you may be hooked – especially if you think you got a good deal. In the process, you will be enticed to buy more and more bids/chips in the hope that just a few more bids will do it. Oh, and the come-ons awards for using up bids fast and roping in others…it is a fast and exciting gambling game that you can play right from home. Be not foolish.

I joined QuiBid yesterday, I got the link through some website while surfing. I watched the fake video that everyone mentions here and it looked real to me so I joined. I can’t remember if I had a choice or not but I was charged $60 bucks for 100 bids. I registered, confirmed my e-mail and I was in. I read all the newbie information and started kicking the tires. I knew right off the bat I was not going to shoot for a high ticket item. I aimed low and found the gift cards to be very tempting so I watched a few auctions (poker Hands) and kind of developed my own system. I went to a few $25 Walmart cards that had a few minutes left on them with no bids and waited. When the clock ticked down to about 3 seconds I pulled the trigger, waited the allotted 20 seconds and then they came, one bidder and then two until there was about 6 of us. I placed a total of 4 bids and won the auction on my first try! I spent $2.40 on bids 17cents on the item and paid $1.99 on shipping, net gain $20.44!!! I realize I did not win a $1200 flat screen TV, but its a start. I repeated this process two more times and reached my 3 transaction limit in about 2 hours. I spent a total of $15.18 and received 3 Walmart cards worth $60.00. Thats about $45 dollars off my food bill at Walmart. My only complaint is that I was restricted to 3 wins in a 24 hour period. In my opinion it is NOT a scam, just start out slow sit back and watch and observe. I missed several deals because I was too careful, I will stay with Walmart gift cards all day long. . . . .easy money.

Does Quibids have something to say about the recent lawsuit filed against them? I know it seems more like an attack on the penny auction model in general, but I think it would be a legal unprecedented.

Also, if Quibids wants to appear more professional, I think it is high time they get rid of the scam advertisements and misleading PR info around the web. That greatly reduces their credibility.

I wish I had thought of this, this is brilliant!!! How else can I get to sell a Mac for $18,000.00. Stay away, this is an advanced form of internet gambling, you have better odds at poker, even if you’re a donk.

i could not get the coupon code to work at all,they only gave me 3 to try,and i wanted to see if i wanted to buy more but they wanted to charge me first (60) dollars! what is the point of giving any to try! so i took this as a scam and x out. thanks for nothing but lies…judy ward

You can pretty much be assured its a bot if the bidders are into a $500 item for more than the cost of it ($2000 on an ipad?). A real human being would take the “buy it now” once they cross retail, right? or was this before they added the buy it now feature?

I got physically sick by the end of that interview. Out of all people. The CEO!? In my experience some penny auction sites are legit. (bidrack for one) and others < to put it nicely, not so legit. I think quibids started this scam and others saw it as a good soure of legit money with staying power.

Hi RyanB,
Good to hear that you had a good experience w/ Bidrack. I can’t say whether or not they are a scam because I don’t know but they do seem to have a lot of traffic & users and I’ve always received won items pretty quick. Good luck!

It may not be a “scam” but the business model is designed for them to make a bucket of $$ while one person “wins” the auction.

Thinks about it: Each bid costs $0.60. If the price is raised by $0.01 and 1000 bids are placed, they get $6000 and the price rises $60. So they buy the product (say it’s a $500 product) and then ship it (maybe) to you. They pocket the $5500 and you have paid perhaps $75. A deal for you. But if you lost the bid you are screwed.

This is a business model that only works when the majority lose. This A—hole thinks the “experience of competing for prizes”….wait, what did he say? ” Competing for prizes? I thought this was an auction!!! There are NO PRIZES in an auction.

If you have half a brain you will see right through this rather dubious ‘scam’

I guess Apple or Windows with their products or musicians are also scamming their customers then??? How much do you think it costs to create a CD or DVD?? about 5 cents… but you see the software being sold for several hundreds of dollars. Scam?? I think not. You know what your getting into with these auctions, just as you know what your buying when you purchase a CD or DVD. Try to think a little more before you post comments that make you look like a tard

Hello, everyone is entitled to their own opinion of this website, however I am a member of this website and do not feel as though I am being scammed. If you bid on items properly then you do save quite alot of money on things you would have bought outright. I recently bought a 45 bid package for 27 dollars. I bid 5 bids on a 25 dollar giftcard to Starbucks and ended up having to pay 14 cents and right after that I won another giftcard to walmart for 50 dollars using just 3 bids and ended up paying 1 dollar and 2 cents. If you keep track of how much money you spend and the amount of bids you use you can be ahead of the game. But many people don’t take the time to understand this and go bidding like crazy people, lose all their money on bids and say its a scam. All in all I spent less money than what I got back at Quibids. And yes, I recieved both cards with the correct amount on each.

A common error that I see 100’s of people making is they claim Quibids is making the price sold of item * $0.60 and that simply is not true.
Let’s say a $10 gift card goes for $0.50 , all these idiots online are claiming that Quibids makes 50 x $0.60 = $30 (you could not be more wrong).
See, they have this feature called “Buy It Now” which subtracts the amount you paid from $10
Now, if 5 people made these 50 bids (lets say 10 each) they each would have spent 10 x 0.60 = $6
Now, 1 person had to win, so he pays $6 + $0.50
The other 4 people can “Buy It Now” for $4!

What profit did Quibids make when everyone who lost used the “Buy It Now”? NOTHING!
Oh yah, they made money from shipping, but they have to encur shipping costs themselves so I don’t see that as profit.

You absolutely cannot just take the price of the item and multiply the number of pennies by $0.60 , that is wrong and it is stupid. That is not Quibids profit. It’s called “you fail math big time”

Also, if a $10 gift card sells for $.50. (That’s $9.50 loss to the buyer) $9.50 would have to be deducted from 50 x .60 = $30.00 – $9.50 = $21.50 revennue, then minus all their other costs & losses from auctions that don’t do well. Cheers

Not a scam. Doesn’t have to be. Plenty of gullible people looking for the low-percentage chance of scoring an incredible deal. The few win large, the large win few. QB rakes in the cash fair & square. The company gladly ships each product – especially after making 500-1000% on it.

You are a f**king thief and ought to be in jail. The site is full of shill bidders and it is nearly impossible to win unless you bid more than the item is worth. Shame on you and I can’t wait until you are put in prison. I hope it’s for a long time. You got $60.00 from me and I consider it a lesson well learned about trusting something that is way to good to be true, fair , and honest. I would comment to all these scam web sites, but it’s obvious that others have already caught on. Unfortunately, you’ll be super rich before you run out of suckers. Joe McCarty

I wrote a review on Quibids and I think it’s not a scam. It’s a gambling website, you bid you lose 60 cents, regardless if you win or loss. Read my full review here: http://www.keyframe5.com/quibids-review/

Until they show the total winning cost for all the items in their commercials (winning cost + bid cost) they ARE a scam, since if they are scared to show people what the item REALLY costs they must not be THAT sure of their model.

I’ve been curious about QuiBids as well and decided to check into things myself. I wrote a script that watches auctions and keeps track of every single person who bids on an auction and how many bids they place and have noticed a very alarming trend…

So far every auction I’ve watched there are users who are spending well over the value of the prize in bids. So for example a gas card worth $15. I’ve seen “users” spend 5o bids on a gas card. Do the quick math…50 bids cost $30. The auction ends over $2.00. So the person bidding is willing to spend $32 for a $15 gas card? And this trend has thus far applied to every auction I’ve watched.

This just seems really really fishy to me. Either there are a lot of idiots on the site or there’s something more going on. Anyone else notice this sort of thing?

Yes. It looks fishy because they use bots to keep the price in play. Even if they win their own product they make a ton but just keeping it going. No one really knows who wins and they don’t have to verify it. They just put the product back up and let it go for another round. Open several tech auctions at once and you’ll see that all the bidders are the same, at the same time, they fade out and then another takes it’s place. Because of the bid o matic I would not think this is weird except that the same person will be bidding across multiple items at the same time. Open multiple auctions at once. You’ll see. For example, I had a TV, a macbook, and a soundsystem all open. The same people bid at the same time and synchronized. It was weird. I’m telling you they keep the price in play and most likely have the same item up for auction multiple times if one of their bots ends up winning.

Quibids uses bots to keep the price in play. If they didn’t they wouldn’t get bidders on the hook enough to make any money. If you follow the larger tech items, open 5-6 separate items that are closing in under 20 seconds. You’ll find that all of these items have the same exact bidders who bid at the same time. You’ll have someone bidding on a TV and a Macbook, and a Surround System all at once. But then that bidder will phase out on all of them and a new bidder will appear on all of them. The same bidder who has set up his bid to take place on all of these items. Clearly what Quibids is doing is using bots to bid on the price to keep it in play. This allows more “one time” bidders to come in randomly. They bots are layered to make it appear as though there are many different bidders coming in at different times using the Bid-O-Matic, but they are just bots set up to bid through a cycle, drop out, only to be replaced by a new bot. They know how much they need to make for an item and they will keep that price in play until enough real bids by real people are made in order to then let the auction close. If they did not do this they would never make any money. So, know that you are bidding against bots that are enticing you to come into the auction until enough “real account/real person” bids are made.

Also notice that the CEO did not answer the question about bots and shill bidding. He did not say they don’t use bots. He said “If someone uses the site they’ll see it’s not a scam”. There is no way these guys are not using bid bots. I just don’t understand why someone hasn’t gone after them.

What most people do not realize, is that when someone wins a voucher, lets say a 100 bid voucher, those bids do not take off of the .60 per bid price of the buy it now. So someone may put in 1000-2000 bis on an item, and in the end of the day might have only put 200-300 actual .60 bids on the item. so they might have placed 2000 bids, or $1,200 in value on the item, but in the end of the day, they only put $180.00 in the game for the larger item. So, that is why when vouchers are selling for very little, people are often racking up bids for these larger items. And turning around their profitability.

People are so foolish..not for participating in penny auction sites, but for casting foolish opinions without any knowledge of what they are saying or ownership of their actions.

Quibids, nor any other auction, forces one to participate. That is a choice that each individual makes. Why? Usually, because they are wanting a “deal” or something for nothing. So who is scamming whom? Also, too many people compare these penny auction sites to ebay when their business models are grossly different.

If one does his research, is bidding pennies on an item he/ she is willing and wanting to buy, instead trying to “steal” it, then nobody is scammed or ripped off as so many people state.

For example, I like QuiBids and a few others. So if I decide I want to buy a new TV, I do my research comparing prices at various electronics stores. Now, I have a choice to make: I can walk into that store and pay full retail price, or I can “choose” to buy bids and try to win it at a much cheaper price. That is a choice that I make for myself…not one the penny site makes for me.

If I am committed to winning that TV, I am going to win it. If I spend hundreds of dollars on bids, plus have to pay the final sale price, both of which must be considered when calculating the true cost of the item, and my final price is less than that of the store, how did I get scammed? If the people competing against me in the auction gave up bidding, and did not use the Buy It Now feature which allows you to purchase the TV for retail price with your investment being applied towards that price, how did they get scammed? It was a choice they made to walk away. If they walked away, then they were not prepared to buy that TV and did not really want it. They wanted a “good deal” instead..something for nothing.

That is the problem with blogs such as these and the comments that follow. People do not look at the whole picture, the total investment. They think they are getting something for nothing, and when the clock starts over, they think they got scammed. If you bid on something that you are not willing to buy, you ripped yourself off in hopes of getting a “good deal”. If you spend money on the bids and then walk away after someone else wins, instead of using the Buy It Now, you ripped yourself off.

These are choices that individuals make for themselves. Some sites, such QuiBids, have blocks in place so that you have to stop bidding once you meet the retail price – their Buy It Now price. They are looking out for those who cannot look out for themselves. Yet, this feature is NEVER mentioned in these web reviews.

I would imagine that the group of people who complain, cry scam, etc, about these penny auctions are also the same people who want to know how much a car dealership will give them for their trade, which is a majority of our population. They think the trade-in value contributes to the “deal” they are envisioning on the new car, but it isn’t. The reality of it is that it doesn’t matter what you receive for your old car trade. All that matters is the trade difference.

People need to become educated, experienced, and accountable in life’s adventures, risks, and pleasures in which they partake, or do not partake. Hold yourself accountable for your own decisions, and if you don’t understand something, then do not be involved in it. One’s lack of knowledge does not constitute slandering any other organization or individual.

In a few days, I will be enjoying my new $345 pistol I won on a penny auction site. I paid $4.99 plus $10 shipping according to the invoice. But, I am smart enough to know that I also paid $85 in bids and must consider that as part of my expenses. Did I get ripped off? I don’t think so. I knew the value of the firearm before the auction began (because I did my due diligence) and I knew I was going to buy it if I didn’t win it with the money I had invested in bids. As it worked out, I won it and saved $245.

Did the person who was bidding against me get scammed? If he didn’t buy it afterwards, yes, he scammed himself.

OMGD, do not even bother if you just complain, it is a gamble, like the lottery, you are just pissed you did not win, get over it, the guy is smart and making money and so are the people that bid and win…..